Christmas has always been one of my most favourite times of the year - and yes, I am EXCITED! Despite working throughout the season, continuing my work with the Alberta Emergency Covid Response Team, here in Canada, I am filled with hope that our world is on the cusp of new awakening. Despite the naysayers and conspiracy theorists adding to the panic and fear with so many confusing messages, I see our world coming together for a common cause: to fight the global pandemic. Just as our ancestors have done before us, I trust that our sacrifice and hardship will birth hope, peace and wellness for the generations to come.

Never before have I needed to ask my Angel Team to assist me as much as now. Oh don’t get me wrong, I ask daily in my ‘normal life’, but right now, I am using all my Angel Empowerment Techniques and asking Archangel Raphael every moment of every day to help me shield, protect, heal and love. My heart breaks daily as I speak to husbands and wives, sons and daughters, who have loved ones in hospital or the ICU, who face losing, or have lost, their loved ones to this invisible enemy. Yet I speak with others who refuse to isolate or quarantine, defending their right to ‘freedom’ and believing the numbers and deaths are a ‘hoax’. From day one, I have heard individuals daring to say that our elderly and infirm population ‘would have died anyway’. 

There have been many, many Christmas’s past that have not looked the same. Christmas’s that we have lost loved ones. Christmas’s that our world has been at war. Christmas’s affected by natural disasters. First Christmas without a partner, a child, a parent, through illness, divorce, estrangement.

Yes, this Christmas IS going to look very different to many of us this year. With families unable to gather, continuing travel restrictions and retail locations strictly limiting our ability to ‘shop til we drop’, I urge you to look at the benefits of a ‘quieter’ Christmas this year, returning to the traditional values that the season asks us to embrace, but all too often, forget. Practice kindness and empathy - one simple gesture is to wear a mask and play your important role in protecting others. Understand and accept that others may have a different opinion to your own and send them on their way with love and peace, asking your Angel Team to shield and protect you from their anger and frustration. Lend a helping hand to those who need us all right now. Community has never been as important as it is now. Support local business. Share your food, gifts and your good fortune with those less fortunate. Food banks still need our donations and should fare better this year as we ‘slim down’ our huge Christmas Dinner and all the trimmings. Take time to craft gifts - spend time being creative. I have made orange pomanders, origami cranes and helped my son create paintings to send to family across Canada. Be gentle with yourself and others and join together as one, refusing to be torn apart by differing opinions. 

My wish for us all this Christmas is to create memories reminding us of a time we were at peace, when we created opportunities for kindness, practised gratitude and empathy. Together, let’s create the time before our world became a better place.